Incremental Beliefs Research Articles

Continued Participation in Youth Sports: The Role of Achievement Motivation

This study explored the antecedents of enjoyment and intention to continue in youth sports using the social-cognitive model of achievement motivation with the 2 × 2 achievement goal modification. Participants were 327 sports participants between 11 and 15 years of age. Individuals high in incremental beliefs reported greater enjoyment and intention to continue. This was perhaps due to endorsing mastery-approach goals. Individuals relatively high in entity beliefs reported relatively less enjoyment. This was perhaps due to endorsing performance-avoidance goals. These individuals also reported relatively less intention to continue regardless of their achievement goals. Findings could have implications for preventing dropout from youth sports.

The impact of coaching orientation on subordinate performance: the moderating effects of implicit person theory and LMX

Manager‐as‐coach (MAC) has been critical for facilitating and enhancing subordinate learning and development. ‘Regulatory fit’ and ‘leader–member exchange’ (LMX) can be two key factors in the coaching relationship between coaches (supervisors) and coachees (subordinates). This study investigated the impact of different coaching orientations – promotion and prevention – on subordinate performance, and examined the moderating effects of coachees' implicit person beliefs and LMX. Four results were found. First, a promotion coaching orientation was positively related to subordinate performance, and it had a more positive effect on subordinate performance than a prevention coaching orientation. Second, subordinates with incremental beliefs relative to subordinates with entity beliefs experienced a better regulatory fit and demonstrated better performance following promotion‐oriented coaching. Third, the subordinates in higher quality LMX relationships had better performance following a promotion coaching orientation. Fourth, LMX had a main effect on the subordinate performance following prevention‐oriented coaching, which implies a compensatory effect between a high‐quality LMX relationship and a prevention coaching orientation.

Students’ beliefs about themselves as mathematics learners

Key aims of this study were to identify relationships between students’ domain-general theory-of-intelligence, task-specific mathematics self-efficacy, and mathematics achievement, and the effects on these variables of teacher-implemented micro-interventions. The dimensionality of theory-of-intelligence was also investigated. Participants were 7–9-year-olds in four New Zealand primary schools, two of which formed the intervention group (n=41) and the remaining two, the comparison group (n=50). Three waves of data were collected in a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design, using a questionnaire designed to measure students’ domain-general beliefs about their capacity to increase their intelligence and task-specific beliefs about their mathematics capability, and a mathematics achievement test. In their regular mathematics lessons, intervention group teachers incorporated micro-interventions in the form of particular pedagogical strategies, as they judged appropriate. Many of these strategies focused on making students’ progress explicit, and all aimed at increasing students’ mathematics self-efficacy. Results showed that students’ beliefs about intelligence comprised two distinct dimensions, one corresponding to entity beliefs and the other to incremental beliefs. The intervention group showed a significantly greater increase in mathematics achievement, incremental belief and self-efficacy than the comparison group. While mathematics achievement and self-efficacy were consistently correlated, there was no significant correlation between mathematics achievement and incremental belief. Two main implications of the findings were that, first, teachers’ micro-interventions can be effective in building students’ learning dispositions and achievement. Secondly, relationships between students’ metacognition and achievement are less straightforward than has been represented in the relevant research literature.

The role of implicit theories of intelligence and ability in predicting achievement for Indigenous (Aboriginal) Australian students

Although researchers have shown that Indigenous (Aboriginal) Australian students perform significantly lower in academic achievement than non-Indigenous students, investigations into the role of motivational processes have been limited. In the current study, we focus on implicit theories of intelligence and ability (or, “implicit beliefs”), which refer to students' beliefs about the malleability (i.e., incremental beliefs) or static nature (i.e., entity beliefs) of intelligence and ability. More precisely, we examine whether students' Indigenous status predicts implicit beliefs and whether both predict academic achievement. In particular, we seek to determine the extent to which implicit beliefs play a mediating role between Indigenous status and academic achievement. We examine implicit beliefs of intelligence and implicit beliefs of mathematics ability. Our sample of 174 high school students comprised n = 87 Indigenous Australian students from 20 schools in grades 7–9 (63% male) and n = 87 randomly drawn non-Indigenous students from the same schools. Path analysis demonstrated that Indigenous status negatively predicted incremental beliefs of intelligence and ability, and that incremental beliefs positively predicted academic achievement. Of note, there was no direct association between Indigenous status and academic achievement; instead the relationship between Indigenous status and achievement operated via implicit beliefs. Combined, the results extend research surrounding Indigenous students' achievement and suggest one possible avenue for intervention.

Incremental Beliefs About Ability Ameliorate Self-Doubt Effects

Past research has typically shown negative effects of self-doubt on performance and psychological well-being. We suggest that these self-doubt effects largely may be due to an underlying assumption that ability is innate and fixed. The present research investigated the main hypothesis that incremental beliefs about ability might ameliorate negative effects of self-doubt. We examined our hypotheses using two lab tasks: verbal reasoning and anagram tasks. Participants’ self-doubt was measured and beliefs about ability were measured after participants read articles advocating either for incremental or entity theories of ability. American College Testing (ACT) scores were obtained to index actual ability level. Consistent with our hypothesis, for participants who believed ability was relatively fixed, higher self-doubt was associated with increased negative affect and lower task performance and engagement. In contrast, for participants who believed that ability was malleable, negative self-doubt effects were ameliorated; self-doubt was even associated with better task performance. These effects were further moderated by participants’ academic ability. These findings suggest that mind-sets about ability moderate self-doubt effects. Self-doubt may have negative effects only when it is interpreted as signaling that ability is immutably low.

The Relationship Between Implicit Beliefs, Anxiety, and Attributional Style in High-Level Soccer Players

This study investigated whether attributional style mediated the relationship between implicit beliefs and competition anxiety. Seventy-two soccer players completed the Conceptions of the Nature of Athletic Ability Questionnaire–Version 2, Sports Competition Anxiety Test, and short form Sports Attributional Style Scale. Entity beliefs were associated with heightened anxiety. Incremental beliefs were associated with lowered anxiety. Uncontrollable and global attributions mediated the relationship between entity beliefs and anxiety. Controllable and specific attributions mediated the relationship between incremental beliefs and anxiety. The social-cognitive model of achievement motivation appears to apply to the sporting domain and may facilitate anxiety and attribution research.

Engineering Students' Intelligence Beliefs and Learning

AbstractBackgroundStudents' beliefs about their intellectual ability influence their use of learning strategies, learning effort, and response to failure or setbacks. Students with incremental views of intelligence believe that learning is possible with sufficient effort, whereas those with entity views believe that intelligence is a fixed quality and expenditure of effort reflects an insufficient amount of that quality.PurposeThis study examined the relationship between engineering students' beliefs about intelligence and their perceived use of active learning strategies such as collaboration and knowledge‐building behaviors, self‐efficacy for learning and performance, and course grade. The study also examined the extent of entity and incremental beliefs in a sample of engineering students.Design/MethodThe correlational study analyzed data from 377 engineering students recruited from required engineering courses at a large public university. We used bivariate correlations to examine relationships between study variables and multiple regression analyses to examine predictive ability of the variables on learning strategies and course grade.ResultsOur results showed that students' intelligence beliefs were correlated with active learning strategies. Self‐efficacy, reported use of collaboration, and incremental beliefs about intelligence were predictive of students' reported use of knowledge‐building behaviors. Intelligence beliefs were not predictive of course grade.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate the utility of these motivational beliefs for understanding university engineering students' learning efforts. Our results also suggest a need for instructors to support incremental views of intelligence among engineering students.

Changes in implicit theories of ability in biology and dropout from STEM majors: A latent growth curve approach

This longitudinal study was designed to investigate the associations between changes in implicit theories of ability in biology and college students’ dropout from STEM majors. We modeled the one-year growth patterns of entity and incremental beliefs about ability in biology with 4 time points of self-reported data and two covariates—biology domain knowledge and inference making and gateway course grade, and predicted STEM dropout with the growth trajectories of implicit theories. Results indicated that students’ entity beliefs increased, while incremental beliefs decreased over time, which provides support for the changeability of implicit beliefs over a short period of time. The growth of incremental beliefs was directly associated with STEM dropout above and beyond biology course grade and biology domain knowledge and inference making. Low intercept and negative slope of incremental beliefs predicted leaving STEM majors; however, the decline of entity beliefs did not have significant effects on dropout. Interestingly, the effect of biology domain knowledge and inference making on STEM dropout was mediated by biology course grade and incremental beliefs. The findings imply the importance of monitoring changes in students’ implicit beliefs and gateway course achievement in order to better understand and promote STEM retention.

Implicit theories of writing and their impact on students' response to a SRSD intervention.

In the field of intelligence research, it has been shown that some people conceive intelligence as a fixed trait that cannot be changed (entity beliefs), whereas others conceive it as a malleable trait that can be developed (incremental beliefs). What about writing? Do people hold similar implicit theories about the nature of their writing ability? Furthermore, are these beliefs likely to influence students' response to a writing intervention? We aimed to develop a scale to measure students' implicit theories of writing (pilot study) and to test whether these beliefs influence strategy-instruction effectiveness (intervention study). In the pilot and intervention studies participated, respectively, 128 and 192 students (Grades 5-6). Based on existing instruments that measure self-theories of intelligence, we developed the Implicit Theories of Writing (ITW) scale that was tested with the pilot sample. In the intervention study, 109 students received planning instruction based on the self-regulated strategy development model, whereas 83 students received standard writing instruction. Students were evaluated before, in the middle, and after instruction. ITW's validity was supported by piloting results and their successful cross-validation in the intervention study. In this, intervention students wrote longer and better texts than control students. Moreover, latent growth curve modelling showed that the more the intervention students conceived writing as a malleable skill, the more the quality of their texts improved. This research is of educational relevance because it provides a measure to evaluate students' implicit theories of writing and shows their impact on response to intervention.

Effects of Person- and Process-Focused Feedback on Prosocial Behavior in Middle Childhood.

Effects of person- and process-focused feedback, parental lay theories, and prosocial self-concept on children's prosocial behavior were investigated with 143 9- and 10-year-old children who participated in a single session. Parents reported entity (person-focused) and incremental (process-focused) beliefs related to prosocial behavior. Children completed measures of prosocial self-concept, then participated in a virtual online chat with child actors who asked for help with service projects. After completing the chat, children could assist with the service projects. In the first cohort, children were randomly assigned to receive person-focused, process-focused, or control feedback about sympathy. In the second cohort, with newly-recruited families, children received no feedback. When given process-focused feedback, children spent less time spent helping and worked on fewer service projects. When given no feedback, children spent less time helping when parents held incremental (process-focused) beliefs. Children with higher prosocial self-concept who received no feedback worked on more service projects.

Incremental beliefs of ability, achievement emotions and learning of Singapore students

This study investigated the relationships of students’ incremental beliefs of math ability to their achievement emotions, classroom engagement and math achievement. A sample of 273 secondary students in Singapore were administered measures of incremental beliefs of math ability, math enjoyment, pride, boredom and anxiety, as well as math classroom attention and disruption. In addition, students’ end-of-year math achievement scores were collected from school records. The hypothesised mediation model was supported in structural equation modelling analysis. Incremental beliefs of math ability were associated positively with math enjoyment and pride, and negatively with math boredom and anxiety. Achievement emotions fully mediated the relationships of incremental beliefs of math ability to classroom engagement and math achievement. Incremental beliefs of math ability were associated positively with classroom attention through math enjoyment and pride, negatively with classroom disruption through math anxiety and positively with math achievement through the two outcome-related emotions, math pride and anxiety. The findings and implications are discussed in the academic context of Singapore.

Implicit beliefs of ability, approach-avoidance goals and cognitive anxiety among team sport athletes

People's implicit beliefs of ability have been suggested as an antecedent of achievement goal adoption, which has in turn been associated with behavioural, cognitive and affective outcomes. This study examined a conditional process model with team sport athletes' approach-avoidance achievement goals as mediators between their implicit beliefs of sport ability and sport-related cognitive anxiety. We expected gender to moderate the paths from implicit beliefs of ability to approach-avoidance goals and from approach-avoidance goals to cognitive anxiety. Team sport athletes with a mean age of 20 years (163 females and 152 males) responded to questionnaires about their implicit beliefs of sport ability, approach-avoidance goals and sport-related cognitive anxiety. Incremental beliefs, gender and the interaction between them predicted mastery-approach goals. Gender also predicted mastery-avoidance goals, with females reporting higher levels than males. Mastery-avoidance goals, gender and the interaction between them predicted cognitive anxiety, with females reporting higher levels of anxiety than males. Entity beliefs positively predicted performance-avoidance goals and the interaction between performance-approach and gender predicted anxiety. The indirect effects also showed gender differences in relation to performance-approach goals. Taken together, our results suggest that coaches trying to create a facilitating climate for their male and female athletes may be wise to consider their athletes' anxiety and achievement goal patterns as these may affect both the athletes' well-being and performance.

Increasing your intelligence: Entity and incremental beliefs about the multiple “intelligences”

This study examined the personality correlates of incremental/entity attitudes towards the growth/increase of 14 “multiple intelligences”. A total of 277 participants completed a questionnaire about the degree to which each “type of intelligence” is impossible/easy to change. This was followed by a 15-item Big Five personality traits questionnaire (Costa & McCrae, 1992), a measure of core self-evaluation (Judge et al., 2003) and a growth mindset questionnaire (Dweck, 2012). Whilst verbal, naturalistic and intra-personal intelligences were seen to be relatively easy to change, creative and musical intelligences were seen as much less so. The 14 “intelligences” factored into three interpretable factors labelled as abstract, skilful and classical intelligences. Core self-evaluation and growth mindset were both highly significant correlates of each factor. Whilst neuroticism and openness were significant correlates for abstract and classical intelligences respectively, no other significant results were obtained from the Big Five personality traits. These findings highlight the importance of core self-evaluation and mindset beliefs in educational and occupational settings. Limitations were noted.

Lay theories of smoking and young adult nonsmokers’ and smokers’ smoking expectations

This study investigated the relationship between lay theories of cigarette smoking and expectations to smoke. An incremental lay theory of smoking entails the belief that smoking behavior can change; an entity theory entails the belief that smoking behavior cannot change. Undergraduate nonsmokers and smokers completed a survey that assessed lay theories of smoking and smoking expectations. Results demonstrated that lay theories of smoking were differentially associated with smoking expectations for nonsmokers and smokers: stronger incremental beliefs were associated with greater expectations of trying smoking for nonsmokers but lower expectations of becoming a regular smoker for smokers. Implications for interventions are discussed.

Implicit theories of intelligence and academic locus of control as predictors of studying behaviour

Dweck's social-cognitive approach to implicit theories of intelligence posits that entity beliefs and incremental beliefs are associated with, and precede the development of, external and internal locus of control respectively. To date, this proposition underlying the theory has not been adequately tested. An online questionnaire including measures of implicit intelligence beliefs, academic locus of control and hours studying per week was completed by 94 Australian university students. Multiple regression analysis supported the posited relationship between entity beliefs and external locus of control, but not that between incremental beliefs and internal locus of control. While providing partial support for Dweck's proposition, further longitudinal testing is required to determine causal ordering. A second multiple regression indicated that academic locus of control was a significant predictor of hours studying per week, but implicit theories of intelligence were not, suggesting that locus of control beliefs are the more appropriate target of efforts at improving academic effort.

Antecedents of approach-avoidance achievement goal adoption: An analysis of two physical education activities

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between implicit theories of ability and competence perceptions to changes in approach-avoidance goal adoption in two specific activities in the curriculum. Four hundred and thirty pupils, aged 11–15 years, completed measures of approach-avoidance goals, perceived competence and implicit theories of ability at the start and end of a tennis or cricket unit of work in physical education (PE). In both tennis and cricket, most of the variance in the variables under investigation was due to differences between pupils and not to differences between classes. Controlling for prior approach-avoidance goal adoption, incremental beliefs predicted change in mastery-approach goal adoption and perceptions of competence predicted change in performance-approach goal adoption over the unit of work in both tennis and cricket. Differences in the predictive pattern of antecedents to changes in goal adoption emerged between activities.

Protective processes: the function of young people's implicit theories of crime in offending behaviour

Despite development in high-risk environments, many youths are resilient and do not engage in antisocial behaviour and crime. Research on human traits such as intelligence and morality, suggest that the implicit theories (ITs) people have about the controllability of their behaviour, as either fixed (entity beliefs) or malleable (incremental beliefs) may play a part in successful behavioural outcomes. Using this as a framework, the function of ITs about crime in successful adolescent development was investigated among 422 ‘at-risk’ youths. Incremental ITs of criminality were found to significantly predict less self-reported involvement in youth offending, controlling for academic attainment. Entity ITs, conversely, were associated with an increased rate of participation in deviant behaviour. Further analysis revealed that incremental ITs of criminality moderated the negative effects of associating with delinquent peers on adolescent behaviour. The results demonstrate the direct and indirect protective function of incremental ITs of criminality for youths at risk and highlight the value of investigating further the protective processes that are involved in preventing youth crime.

Consequences of Beliefs about the Malleability of Creativity

Attempts to maximize creativity pervade corporate, artistic, and scientific domains. This research investigated how individual's lay beliefs about the malleability of creativity affect several measures of creative potential. Two correlational and 1 experimental study examined the relationship between malleability beliefs about creativity and creative problem-solving and prior creative achievement. In Study 1, incremental beliefs in creativity were associated with interest in creative thinking, self-reported creativity, and creative problem-solving. In Study 2, incremental beliefs were associated with prior creative achievement in a cross-cultural, professional sample. In Study 3, incremental primes of creativity led to improved creative problem-solving. All studies provide discriminant validity and domain-specificity for malleability beliefs in creativity. Specifically, Studies 1 and 2 controlled for individual differences in beliefs about the malleability of intelligence, suggesting that malleability beliefs of creativity and intelligence are meaningfully distinct. Meanwhile, Study 3 found that incremental beliefs of creativity enhance creative problem-solving but not problem-solving more generally.

Do Subordinates Formulate an Impression of their Manager's Implicit Person Theory?

Implicit person theory (IPT) is characterised by the belief that specific attributes of people are generally either more static (i.e. entity beliefs) or more malleable (i.e. incremental beliefs). Within the organisational sciences literature, past IPT research has focused on the impact of managers' IPT beliefs on their own behaviours. The current research advances the extant literature by presenting two empirical studies that assess whether subordinates formulate an impression of their manager's IPT. The results are consistent with subordinates forming such an impression, as subordinates working under the same manager generally agreed on their manager's IPT. Moreover, our results support the convergent validity (e.g. with job satisfaction, turnover intention) and the discriminant validity (e.g. with transformational leadership, subordinates' own IPT perception) of the subordinates' impressions of their manager's IPT. The theoretical and practical implications of the current research, and future directions regarding cross-cultural differences related to IPT impression, are discussed.

Creating the Opportunity to Learn

Creating the Opportunity to Learn